YCS Atlanta Decks – By the Numbers

February 12th, 2011

Deck Statistics from YCS Atlanta

It’s been more than 2 months since the previous Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series in Atlanta, where Gravekeepers swept the field and sent the Dueling world reeling in surprise. In Atlanta, everyone felt the impact of Gravekeeper’s Recruiter from Starstrike Blastfor the first time, and 3 Gravekeeper Duelists took the top 3 spots of the tournament! There was a bigger variety of Decks played in Atlanta than at any previous YCS of this format, and in the end, one of the most underrepresented Decks proved to be the most successful, showing that you don’t need to run the same Decks as everyone else to win!

The Top 5 Decks

But even though you don’t have to play one of the most common Decks to win, you will see them a lot at an average event. So you need to be ready to take them down when you face them. In Atlanta, the most popular Decks were Blackwings (14.6% of the field), X-Sabers (10.1% of the field), Quickdraw Dandywarrior (8.8%), Plant Synchro (7.7%), and Lightsworn (5.9% of the field).

While there’s no guarantee that any of these 5 Decks will be as popular here in Dallas, especially with a brand new field of cards available thanks to Storm of Ragnarok, the chances are high that competitors in this weekend’s tournament will face off against at least a few of these Decks more than once.

But only being able to defeat these Top 5 Decks won’t be enough to triumph in the tournament. Scrap Decks getting stronger, and competitive Six Samurai Decks are rapidly gaining steam. (And there’s always the threat of, say, a god. From the North. Or even three gods). So Duelists will need to be ready for anything this weekend. The 5 most popular Decks – combined – made up less than half the field in Atlanta.

Success in Atlanta

Success in Atlanta was not tied to the number of competitors using each Deck. There were 11 different types of Decks in the Top 32, including Infernities, Dimensional Eatos, Zombiesworn, and Formula Monarchs. Even though relatively few people brought any of those Decks to the tournament. But skill, determination, and a little bit of luck, can take anybody close to the top. But perhaps the most surprising turn of events in Atlanta, was the success of Gravekeepers, taking first, second, and third place in the tournament, despite their low numbers.

Will several Duelists be inspired to run Gravekeeper’s Decks this weekend, with the hopes of repeating the Gravekeeper’s success? Or will Duelists instead choose to run Decks capable of defeating Gravekeeper’s Decks? Duelists all over are taking different approaches to give them the edge in this weekend’s YCS, by using their knowledge about YCS Atlanta. At the end of the weekend, we’ll find out which Duelist’s approach pays off.

Welcome to YCS Dallas!

While the successful Decks in Atlanta give us a little bit of insight into what to expect this weekend, it’s far from an accurate predictor. Gravekeepers no longer have the element of surprise on their side. Duelists around the world have learned the tricks of the Gravekeeper Decks, and prepared their Side Decks to help make it a favorable matchup.

Storm of Ragnarok, released this week, makes its YCS debut this weekend, bringin rise to new contenders, including Nordics and Six Samurai. The ability for these new Decks to take down already-established Deck types will leave all of the competitors this weekend guessing which Deck will win, until the very end of the tournament.

We may see a resurgence in old Decks too, including Gladiator Beasts, thanks to new cards that help out the Deck, like Forbidden Lance. With the representation of Gladiator Beast Decks dwindling, this might be the perfect weekend for them to catch unsuspecting Duelists off-guard and take a surprise YCS victory.

The tournament is just starting and the dust won’t settle until tomorrow. But when it does, we’ll finally know the identity of the final YCS winner of the format, and the Deck he or she used to get there!